One of the worst, if not THE worst, race riots began in Tulsa, Oklahoma May 31, 1921. A young black man, Dick Rowland, was accused of assaulting a white woman in an elevator in the city. The man was arrested, but word got around, mainly due to the white newspaper in Tulsa at the time, spreading rumors of a lynching. The paper used inflammatory language which stirred up the white population into a murderous frenzy.
The black community rallied around Rowland, by arming themselves and showing up at the jail where he was being held. The sheriff reassured them that Rowland would not be lynched. However as the crowd began to disperse, a gunshot was heard and "all hell broke loose".
The riots, arson, and murders took place in the Greenwood area of Tulsa, a wealthy, black neighborhood, which had been dubbed "Black Wall Street".
Over the course of two days, people were killed, houses were burned, businesses were looted, and scores injured. The exact number of casualties is unknown but estimates range from 36 dead to 300.
For decades, the incident was kept quiet and omitted from local, state, and national histories. The Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 was formed in 1996. The commission reported that the city had conspired with the racist mob. Oklahoma passed legislation to establish scholarships for descendants of the survivors, and develop a park in memory of the victims of the massacre. Schools in Oklahoma have been required to teach students about the massacre since 2002, and the massacre became an official part of the Oklahoma school curriculum.
However, the governor and the state superintendent of schools have declared teachers cannot teach that the massacre was based on race.
To read more about this go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
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